When it comes to teenagers at school, rumors spread like wildfire. People say all kinds of things about other students and teachers, sometimes blowing the truth way out of proportion with harmful consequences for the people involved.
But in some cases, those shocking allegations actually turn out to be true, and worth reporting. These people shared the stories they couldn't believe, until suddenly the consequences were so real, they couldn't be ignored.
(Content has been edited for clarity.)
Three Dollars And A Bag Of Doritos
“We had a running joke around my school for years. If someone asked, ‘Could you (insert question here)?’ most people would reply, ‘I’ll do it for a bag of Doritos.’
This was a school-wide inside joke because a girl was caught giving this guy a favor in the bathroom. The principal had the bright idea of asking why the girl would do this. He replied, ‘She said she would do it for $3 and a bag of Doritos.’
No one ever saw the girl again, but the guy became a legend.”
The Ricki Lake Club
“At my high school, there was a group of kids (males, mostly football players) who called themselves ‘The Ricki Lake Club’ and would hide out in different classrooms, risking some serious detention time, to watch the late-90s Ricki Lake daytime talk show during lunch.
A guy in my grade was part of the group and would constantly brag about this, and it became kind of a joke, but no one actually believed that it was a real thing because, I mean, come on. We’d all be going to the lunch room and he’d go, ‘Sorry guys, it’s Ricki time’ and run off. We all thought he off was getting high or something. It turns out, this actually happened, very frequently, and there were a substantial group of people sneaking off to do it.
As I’m told, one kid (whose mom worked in the front office) stole a master schedule of the classrooms, revealing when they would be empty, and classrooms were never locked (this was well before 9/11). Lunch was at noon, which was when the show came on. The club president would send out an email list each week, saying what rooms to meet in on which days. Long story short, I was encouraged to join in the fun one day, so in disbelief I snuck out of the lunchroom to the back of the band room (the chosen empty room that day) which somehow had a TV and sure enough, there were about 25 high school age males, going nuts (as quietly as possible) at the TV watching The Ricki Lake Show.
Apparently, this went on for all of my sophomore year without anyone finding out, until Mr. Turner, the computer teacher, stumbled in on the group, and the whole thing fell apart like the end of a gangster movie.”
Don’t Mess With The New Kid
“A new kid comes to our high school. He has a unique accent because his parents were missionaries, traveling all over the world. He was actually kind of cool. He spoke at least four different languages (English, Spanish, Russian, and Mandarin). He was polite and everyone liked him. Of course, he had haters, mainly the so-called ‘bullies.’
Rumors began that he was well-versed in many forms of martial arts. He never denied, nor admitted to them. So one of the bullies decided to find out. He was much bigger than the new kid. The new kid did everything in his power to not escalate the fight and even took a punch from the bully before his face suddenly changed.
Well, I guess the rumor was true. Not only did the new kid beat this bully up, the bully was so terrified he soiled himself in front of everyone. It was the best thing I saw in high school.
Unfortunately, I was never that close to the new kid, so I can’t say much more. But I had heard from another friend of mine that he ended up moving after high school. Nobody seems to know anything else. I barely remember his first name (it was not an easy one), let alone his last name. So he will live on in memory as that one mysterious kid that nobody messed with.”
It Wasn’t Random
“My sixth-grade math teacher was creepy. He would assign seats ‘randomly,’ but always placed the girls in the front of the classroom. He did the whole lingering stare thing and was always trying to get people to ‘hang out’ with him during lunch. I never did, but he was married and had a baby, so no one suspected him of anything other than being creepy.
Fast forward about seven years. The teacher ended up being an offender. He had an ongoing relationship with a girl that began when she was 13. Her identity was kept anonymous, but based on what I could see from the various news articles, she was either in my year or the year before me. The police came to arrest him in the middle of class, cuffed him in front of his students, and then had him walk throughout campus in cuffs to get to their car. I don’t feel bad for him at all, but I can’t imagine how his wife and son must feel.”
One Thing Led To Another
“Our math teacher in high school had a student teacher she was helping train to take over for her when she went on maternity leave. The student teacher was maybe 20 years old, and a fairly attractive young woman. So naturally, all the guys in the class had a crush on her. One guy, in particular, was a ‘super senior’ and 18 years old. He flirted with her non-stop and she would act embarrassed and blush and in a non-committal way tell him to knock it off. I’m sure you see where this is going.
Well, towards the end of the semester he was bragging about going on a date with her, claiming they went to the movies, and then back to her place where they got it on. We all thought he was full of it. But the rumor got around the school, and of course, the teachers and faculty found out. Then, one day, she was just gone. We had substitute teachers for the rest of the semester. We all knew what happened. Looking back, it’s kind of a shame that her entire teaching career will now have this red mark on it because of this incident.”
No More Messing Around
“This one is unfortunately messed up. We had two girls in our class that played a game to seduce a teacher. They did the usual staying after class to get him alone, wore inappropriate clothes that showed too much skin, touched him a lot, sat in his lap, laughed obnoxiously at any joke he made, and so on.
‘Girl A’ told ‘Girl B’ she was tired of playing the game after about a month, so she wanted to stop, and they seemingly did. But in actuality, Girl A had been sleeping with the guy since the second week. Girl A finally told Girl B about the situation, and not knowing what to do, Girl B told her mom. Sadly, it seems Girl A had some deep issues going on, and when the time came around for the teacher to be confronted, she took her own life and left a note saying that she didn’t want the teacher to be charged. The mother felt so bad, she didn’t tell the school what was going on the minute she found out, so she felt responsible for the girl’s death. The teacher was removed after the story came out, and he ended up running off, so he was never formally charged.”
Physics Teacher Can’t Keep A Secret
“The music teacher in my high school was rumored to have been fired for sending inappropriate pictures to a female student. There had been substitute teachers taking his place for nearly a month. The principal said he was too ill to come into work, and eventually, another rumor that he had cancer started spreading around. He had been bald longer than anyone could remember. If you asked any of the school staff what was going on, they would just say, ‘He’s just sick right now, we don’t know when he’ll be returning.’
One day in my physics class, everyone in the class pestered the teacher for the whole period until he finally gave in. Some people were still trying to argue the cancer story. One student asked the physics teacher, ‘Did he send pictures to that girl?’ and he finally said, ‘That thing that you think happened, it happened.’ The student said, ‘So he did?’ and the teacher simply nodded his head yes.
A month or so later, the music teacher showed up in school. Everyone was running up to him in the hallway asking what happened. He dodged every question and the last thing I heard him say was, ‘I’m just here to get some things.’ He didn’t teach his class that day and I never saw him again.”
That’s Not A Painting!
“Some kid in my grade found nude pictures of his female art teacher on a school-owned digital camera when he went to take pictures of his own painting. He didn’t have a clue what to do about it, so just started telling people and no one believed him. A couple days later, he’s pulled out of class and had to see the school headmaster about it. They found the camera and the photos, and the teacher claimed, somewhat dubiously, that she was unaware these photos existed.
The thing is, the teacher didn’t get any reprimands, but the kid got suspended for a couple of days for spreading (true) rumors about the teacher.”
Her Mom Had To Pick It Up
“Once, a girl had brought her mum’s intimate toy to school for whatever reason. Teachers found out, it was confiscated, and her poor mum had to come and collect it.
We also had a math teacher whom I would estimate to be in his late 40s, early 50s. Rumours were going round he was sleeping with a female student but obviously were brushed off to begin with.
He ended up losing his job, leaving his wife and two children, and moving in with her AT HER PARENTS’ HOUSE. It also became evident it had started before she was 18, which was super dodgy. Last I knew, they were getting married and he works at PC World.”
A Lot Can Happen In 3 Years
“So at my school, the drama teacher worked closely with one history teacher, who did all the tech stuff for plays — sound, lights, and so on. They spent A LOT of time together, and both of them were married. The tech kids (my friends and I) always joked about them having an affair, and it turned into a schoolwide rumor. We never really thought much about it, and that was in 8th grade.
My friends and I went on to high school and forgot about it for 3 years, until a few months ago when we saw the history teacher at a football game. We went to ask him how he was doing, and the drama teacher comes over and grabs his hand. We awkwardly said, ‘Oh… that was true, huh?’ He replied with, ‘Yeah, we’ve been going out for 2 years.’ We ended the conversation after that. So the rumor wasn’t true when it first started but ended up being true.”
Basketball Star’s Downfall
“The star basketball player was into younger girls.
Let’s be painfully explicit here. The guy was ripped. He was Shaq-foot-ten, and probably at least a head taller than anyone at our school. He was white but tanned like a glazed onion. Girls would be all over him like moths to the sole streetlamp in a dark neighborhood. During freshman and sophomore year, he dated around, but in our junior and senior years, he seemed to be talking exclusively to the freshmen (girls), and as some of us noted, they were the younger-looking freshmen.
Word got around that the guy was using steroids, and that it had something to do with him going for younger girls because they wouldn’t judge him. It was never proven (and apparently he was tested, so that rumor was possibly wrong).
I never believed it. His last girlfriend in high school ended up being this girl who went to Harvard for medicine, and he went off on his basketball scholarship to university. He was always cool, calm, and collegiate, and he was just a sweet guy. No way would he be messing around with younger girls.
Then one of my friends called me from high school, when we were around 25, and told me to look him up. Lo and behold, he had a little mug shot after distributing inappropriate pictures of children.
The guy was surrounded by girls who were into him, yet he turned out to be an absolute creeper. It’s unbelievable to me. But it turned out to be true.”
Keep Your Pants On
“The physics teacher was sending intimate text messages and sleeping with one of his students (not sure if she was 18 or not at the time). Although honestly, no one was surprised. He was a little too friendly toward the girls and changed his pants in the back of the classroom once. He ended up leaving for ‘personal reasons’ over Thanksgiving break, but of course, word got out.
Sadly, his wife was in her third trimester, which probably didn’t make it any easier for her to find out her husband was sleeping with a high school student.”
Everyone Likes Stephanie
“I was an outcast at my high school and was shunned by the majority of the school. Because of this, my circle of friends included the outcasts from my school and the outcasts from several other schools in my city. My friend, Sarah, and I were good friends with a gay guy from another school named Rafael. We were also friends with this punk girl from the same school as Rafael, named Stephanie. We outcasts didn’t know each other that well, but we would always gather for after-school hangouts in the park.
Stephanie was attractive and was dressed in an outwardly flirty way when we saw her – fishnets, schoolgirl uniform, thigh-high boots, and so on. The ‘jocks’ at our school thought we, Sarah and I, were freaks and shunned us. That is until they saw us hanging out with Stephanie. Then every one of them wanted to have her phone number, and we were suddenly popular. Stephanie made the rounds of pretty much the entire football and baseball teams at my high school. Everyone wanted to go on a date with her, and most did.
And then one day, Stephanie let us in on a secret: that Stephanie and Rafael are the same person.”
What A Mess
“The wood tech teacher was married to the French teacher (they had a child). The French teacher slept with the P.E. teacher.
The wood tech teacher found out. He went into the P.E. department and threatened to beat up the P.E. teacher with a cricket bat (I believe this was during a normal school day, but it was before my year started there). A second P.E. teacher got involved and stopped it, so everyone kept their jobs.
Later on, the wood tech teacher married the geography teacher and they had two kids, whilst a third P.E teacher cheated on her husband with the second P.E teacher. Every Wednesday, an hour before lunch, I would see P.E. teachers two and three through the window of my science classroom. They would get in a car and leave together; sometimes I would see them come back, and sometimes I wouldn’t. I jokingly pointed it out to people before anyone else caught on, and later they became a couple that was known to students.
In summary, six teachers, three pregnancies, two affairs, and one angry husband with a cricket bat.”
Millionaire Spanish Teacher
“We had a Spanish teacher who would keep giving random financial and business advice during class. One day, he tabbed over to his stock trading homepage and accidentally revealed that he was a millionaire.
Rumors about his past started circulating. Around graduation, some students found old newspaper articles confirming that he was a former dealer of substances who had spent time in jail.
You never would have known it just from looking at him. He was a good Spanish teacher, too.”
Band Camp Was A Bad Idea
“We were all at band camp, and it was rumored that one of the girls in my class was pregnant. I laughed at the idea when I heard it. Sure, she had a big, baggy shirt on each day. But despite all the jokes, band camp is generally tough on the body. It was 10 or more hours of marching each day, plus hours of music practice. She’d have to be far along; far enough along that she’d know that submitting herself to that kind of exertion in the heat for a week was a bad idea.
Except that she left camp early, and both she and her baby nearly died from what she put herself through. He was premature and had all sorts of problems, but thankfully, it turned out OK. The school and teachers tried to cover up the pregnancy, but when she came back to school telling her story and showing off pictures, it turned out the rumors were true.”
They Did It In Harmony
“In my senior year of high school, the older members of the school chorus were apparently getting it on, like all of them. I heard the rumor and didn’t believe it. And then someone who was there gave me details.
The chorus teacher also picked a new senior every year to have as a ‘girlfriend’ (I have no idea if it got physical). This eventually got out, because the ‘girlfriend’s’ mother found a love note the teacher had written.”
Fancy Meeting You Here
“When my boyfriend was in high school, there was a substitute teacher who was subbing while finishing college, and whose mom had been a teacher at the school for years. This girl eventually ends up screwing half the football team and has skimpy pictures of her going around. They let her resign instead of pressing charges, I’m assuming because of her mom being there for so long and because some of the students were of age.
So a couple of weeks ago, we hired a new attorney at the law firm I work for… IT’S HER.”